ASCII Codes
Secret codes for special characters
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
What are we talking about?
Codes giving access to the Association of Stylish and Crazy IT Inventors?
A secret code accelerating the translation process for technical instructions?
Codes to win at the lottery?
Not at all, sorry! ASCII is the abbreviation for “American Standard Code for Information Interchange”.This is a reference document that the translator takes out of her toolbox in order to deliver quality texts… and write correctly all the letters and signs in the French language.
If you want to write a special character, you hold down the Alt button of your keypad while entering a unique 4-digit code on the numerical keypad depending on the character you want to write. And then, it’s like magic! alt + 0199 allows you to write “GARÇON” with “Ç” (“con” meaning “asshole” in French) so you do not make any offence to male readers. With alt + 0217, you can write the “Ù” in the word “OÙ” (meaning “where” in French), etc.
This universal code works in all applications: desktop sofware like Word, Outlook or Power Point, but also translation software like Trados Studio, Phrase, MemoQ, etc.
Hereafter you will find a small sample of codes that a translator would recite by heart:
From classical codes like alt + 0201, alt + 0192, etc. to write accentuated upper cases.
Through to the code we write to get the bracket quotes « » typically used in French content: alt + 0171 and alt + 0187. Not to forget the alt + 0223 code to conclude the email sent to your German client with “Viele Grüße”. Last but not least, I give the more trendy one – a precious code if you want to adopt the inclusive writing in French. Alt + 183 will allow you to write the inclusive period you will find in “patient·e·s” for example. Now it is your turn to try these ASCII codes on your keyboard!
For more info on the ASCII Codes: Click here.